John Calipari made jokes about how the blowout loss to Florida during the regular-season prevented his Arkansas Razorbacks squad from getting a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Calipari led Arkansas to the SEC Championship this season, automatically qualifying for the NCAA Tournament after beating Vanderbilt. Florida lost to the Commodores in the semifinals, which had them qualify with an At-Large bid instead. However, this ended up in Arkansas getting a 4-seed while Florida secured the 1-seed.
Calipari reacted to the Selection Sunday results on ESPN's SportsCenter show. He joked that Arkansas’ 111-77 loss to Florida on Feb. 28 might’ve cost his team a 3-seed in the tournament.
“Could we have been a three seed? You know we took a couple losses, but we finished second in our league. Florida beat us by 100, and you know we are what we are and now it’s let’s go. Last year, they seeded us, we probably deserved a little better, but what happened was it was unfortunate for Kansas and St. Johns where they seeded us. So this year hopefully we’re gonna be able to do what we do. Hawaii will be really hard,” Calipari said at the 3:09 mark.
“High Point is good. You’re looking at these teams. That’s all I’m worried about is that corner right now and figuring out if we’re going to be able to get to Portland over a two day period.”
What lies ahead for John Calipari, Arkansas
John Calipari is having a strong second year with Arkansas, looking forward to the team's chances in this NCAA Tournament.
Arkansas boasts a 26-8 overall record on the season, having gone 13-5 in its SEC matchups. They finished third place in the conference standings, which allowed them to get a bye to the quarterfinals. This paced the way for them to win the conference tournament title.
The Razorbacks will look forward to their journey in the NCAA Tournament. Having the 4-seed, Arkansas will have a duel against Hawai'i in the first round on March 19 at 4:25 p.m. ET.
